Alan L. Bean, RIP

For those of us who have been space-mad since childhood, there are certain heroes who stand out; Alan Bean was an Apollo hero and naval officer. He stepped on the Moon from aboard Apollo 12, the fourth person in history to walk on the lunar surface. He was also an amazing space artist, and his paintings adorn such places as the Smithsonian Institution.

Alan Bean died yesterday after a short illness, but at age 86, he lived a long and fruitful life.  I remember running across his paintings in catalogs from Novagraphics back in the 1980s. Then, I found out he was a member of the International Association of Astronomical Artists, a group of space artists many of whom I have met or know personally.

A Hero and his Inspiration for All

Alan Bean’s travels to space inspired a generation of us, along with the exploits of his astronaut teammates. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to go to space. In fact, he and his teammates made it look so easy I figured I’d be on the Moon by the time I went to high school. That didn’t happen, of course, so I settled on the next best thing: exploring space by writing about their work and the discoveries made by astronomers and space travelers from around the world.

I’m not the only one; many of us writers were inspired by people like Al Bean and Carl Sagan, and Sally Ride and many many others who sought to turn our eyes skyward. We honor him with our work, whether it’s science writing, space art, videos for planetariums, or simply finding other ways to tell the story of space exploration.

As most readers know, I just published a book about space exploration that’s aimed at folks who know they want to know more but haven’t followed it avidly.  Astronauts are a huge part of the story I told. They should be. Those people are the ones who risked it all to push the frontiers of human exploration. They are, in a very real sense, the heroes we needed to do that work. And, each generation of astronauts and cosmonauts has inspired new ones. The people who go to Mars (who are probably now in high school or college) follow in his footsteps.

Pay a Hero’s Memory Forward

The best thing we can do to memorialize the passing of Alan Bean is to pay forward the knowledge that he and others have fought to gain for us. Many of us who went into astronomy and space owe that lesson to the generations that follow us. It would make Al smile to think of his legacy being paid forward.